Spirit win

Published 7:00 pm, Saturday, February 18, 2006

SAGINAW  Jack Combs and Tom Pyatt scored two goals each to lead the Saginaw Spirit to a 7-3 victory over the Windsor Spitfires in Ontario Hockey League action Saturday night at the Dow Event Center.

The victory puts the Spirit (29-25-1-0) ahead of Windsor in the race for second place in the West Division. Saginaw is one point behind Plymouth, which rallied for a 5-4 win over Guelph Saturday.

The Spirit jumped on the board first just 4:47 into the contest on Combs eighth goal of the season.

Windsor tied it at 3:48 of the second on a goal by Keaton Turkiewicz. But just 44 seconds later, Ryan Berard scored to put Saginaw back in front 2-1.

Windsor again tied the game later in the second on the power play. But the Spirit broke the game open with five straight goals.

Ryan McDonough scored his team-leading 32nd goal at 15:04 of the second to make it 3-2. Then Pyatt notched back-to-back goals. He scored in the final minute of the second and early in the third to extend the Saginaw lead to 5-2.

Patrick McNeill and Combs tacked on goals in the final period.

Francois Thuot was the winning goalie with 22 saves.

The Spirit are back in action today at 2 p.m. when they host defending Memorial Cup champion London.